The Home Visit

We had our home study visit last Tuesday and it went well. Easy and uneventful, actually. It was almost anti-climactic after all the hard work preparing the week before. Thanks so much, Mom and Dad D. for all of your help!

I only have a few more things to do for the home study to be complete, then on to the dossier which, now that I've seen all that's required, is a bit daunting. Every single piece of paperwork I gather must be notarized, then certified (by the state of FL), then authenticated (in Washington, D.C.). Until now, I thought you only needed to notarize to make things "official." Who knew?

If I do not hit any serious snags in gathering our documents, we are hoping to have the dossier complete in six months. It currently takes 2-4 months (though timelines are always subject to change) to get a referral, which is a picture of Kezia and any information that they have about her. Once we have the referral, we should be able to go and get Kezia within a two month period. That would have us travelling to Africa in the summer of 2008, and would allow us, once we returned to the States, to travel to Michigan in order for our families to meet Kezia.

I am also hoping to get things done well before next summer because Ethiopia has a rainy season from August through October. All government agencies are closed during this time, so no adoptions happen during these months. If we do not travel before August, we will not be able to get Kezia until November, at the earliest. Please pray that we will be able to travel to Ethiopia before the rainy season.



DID YOU KNOW...

• There are currently 4.8 million orphans in Ethiopia due primarily to poverty and disease.